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You were about 24 hours late on your post. I was just there yesterday. Hells has an Easter game held the day before Easter. With eggs on the field that contain candy or prizes and a Bunny game where the refs dress in white shirts and bunny ears. It was a great game. I just went to Futureball for the first time a few weeks ago and I've been in the area since 96. Although the owner, managers and refs seemed nice enough, I had a few issues. Their fields are nice enough, especially their lego land and the field with the 2 story house. My issues when I went, fills only went up to 2800psi in the morning session and about 3200psi in the afternoon session. They only had one type of paint (GI sports) when I went and most everyone was complaining about the quality (it seemed to work ok for me). Although you could bring your own paint which is a big plus but I hadn't brought any with me. They couldn't accept credit cards at the field, someone had to run it up to their pro-shop to run it. Having just had my credit card info stolen when my card was out of my control recently, I wasn't going to relinquish control of my card. So I ran it up to their pro-shop and their phone lines were down. I had to use a bank ATM (out of my network) and pay $3.50 to get cash. In all these were just minor problems and I would consider going back but once you go to Hells, I think you will find that you won't have a strong desire. The plus side that Futureball has going for it; mostly woodsball type players, smaller crowd, bring your own paint and airsoft at every session.

Thanks for the 4-11 on Hells. I thought I would get my feet wet playing at what seemed to be a smaller establishment before getting into the chaos that Hells seems to be. I just dusted off my 'mag after about 8 year of [very] limited use, so it's nice to get the hang of playing again in a group where only two or three of the guys are running 12.5 bps with markers I don't even recognize... my last "regular" season of paintball was right around when Angels were the new hot marker on the market :P

As for your critiques of Futureball, I think they're spot on. It's a good casual scene, and if you bring your own paint you can actually play all day for what seems like a really reasonable price. The lack of facilities and credit card service at the field is a bit annoying. I agree that they have some decent fields, but I found the field quality to be directly related to the quantity of people. I played in the afternoon session a few games last week, and the more open fields (like their "village" field across the road) were absolute chaos. Not that a little chaos isn't fun, but it gets boring when you spend the whole game stuck behind one or two pieces of cover with not a lot of other action.

We played on their wood cottage yesterday in the last game, and it was by far my favorite. It's really big compared to the rest of the fields, and it provides a lot of dynamic cover. Clearing the house was a lot of fun, too.

Keep me in the loop next time you go to Hells. Is it a real speedball kind of place? Are they always running just one huge game, or do they split it up much?

BTW: Do you have any idea who would have been running an E-Mag at Futureball on the 12th or 13th of this month? A nice guy that was there when I was there and when this E-Magger was there told me that the E-Magger was an AO user. Just thought I'd ask.

I just got back into paintball after about a 10 year break. My nephew got into paintball and I started playing again about a year and half ago.

Hell's use to have a field called Thunder Dome that was a speedball field but it is now defunct. They have speedball fields but they are used for tourneys and invite only. I'm told they are not normally open to the public. Although they don't run traditional speedball fields (at least for the general public), there are a lot of speedball players that go there with their nice $1500 electros. My buddy was playing with his Vanquish on Saturday. Markers don't scare me. You have to have the skill to use that marker properly. From what I've seen most players run up, stay behind the first barricade they get to and gun it out. I've seen little or no tactical movment from the majority of the "youngsters". Don't get me wrong, there are exceptions and those exceptions can be quite challenging.

When I first went to Hell's they use to run an "A" game and a "B" game; where noobs and/or people with entry level markers can play without fear of getting lit up. However, I'm told that Hell's no longer does this. They have a pump/mag fed game once a month that is held like a private game. I'm seriously considering converting one of my mags to pump.

At the Easter game, I'd say they had about 100 people plus a private party running. We were playing games between 25-40 on a side. I'm sure the numbers were a little higher because of the "prize eggs" that were included in this game and the weather was really nice. There were at least 3 refs on the field, sometimes as many as 5 and they covered the field well. I've never had a bad time at Hell's. I especially like their self serve HPA station. All of your tanks are included. You just get your tank inspected, then tagged and you fill it whenever you feel the need. When I was at Hell's shield game late last year, the game was interupted twice due to hikers passing through the field. I've never experienced that before in my 20 years of playing paintball and it happened twice in one day. That was a little odd but not really Hell's fault.

I too heard of the guy with the Emag at Futureball. I guess he kind of left his mark behind. The refs / managers were still talking about him. Said he "lit up the field". I too asked if they remembered his name because I figured he was AO but no one could remember.

I will be doing some traveling in the next couple weeks myself and I am unsure when I will be heading to Hells again. I want to try and go to their next big game, Global Conquest. If I go sooner, I'll definitely let you know. What city are you from? I'm from the Westland/Livonia area.

Yet again thanks for all the info, and welcome back to the game! I made the same observation of a few of the younger electro players at Futureball last weekend. That said, there were also a handfull of guys shooting what looked like '99 'cockers, and they were formidable. There was one guy shooting a Sniper II or something similar. He and myself (with a stock Trracer from way back in the early days) were the only ones shooting pumps. The old mag was having some issues, but they're fixed now.

I'm in the Ann Arbor/Ypsi area. I managed to convince two of the guys I played with last weekend to buy in, and now one has a milsig m17 on pre-order and the other has a Tippman A5 in the mail. I couldn't quite sell them on getting a used AM/MM, but they'll learn their lesson soon enough.

I think at least the four of us are planning on heading to Hells on 24 May. If you're back in town by then, you should bring your nephew out. We can let the old mags rip!

Unless something changes, I should be home on the 24th of May. My nephew lives in Chicago, so I doubt he will be able to play. His home field is Paintball Explosion. They have a new field that copies the "Nuke Town" map from Call of Duty. I have yet to play on it but hope to sometime soon. Drop me a PM or update here when its getting closer and you know you'll be there. Maybe some other AOs can show up.

Despite being off in farflung places, I've got a ragtag crew of seven or so planning on going on the 24th. Two or three mag shooters, one with a brand new m17 (looking forward to seeing it work) and the rest with tippmans (some rentals some owners). nothing fancy or formal, but it'd be great to connect with anyone else on AO interested in going. I'd expect we'll get there early in the morning and play through mid-afternoon, depending on endurance and budgets.